Steelelife Gallery is pleased to bring highly acclaimed artist Amanda Williams “home” from the West Coast for her first solo exhibition in Chicago, "Back Home", March 11 – April 24, 2006. The opening reception will be on Saturday, March 11, 2006 from 5:30 – 9pm.
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) March 4, 2006 -- Steelelife Gallery is pleased to bring highly acclaimed artist Amanda Williams “home” from the West Coast for her first solo exhibition in Chicago, "Back Home", March 11 – April 24, 2006. The opening reception will be on Saturday, March 11, 2006 from 5:30 – 9pm.
Following early success as an architect – including participation in The Studio Museum in Harlem’s 2004 harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor exhibit – Amanda Williams turned her career fulltime to her first love: painting. The Chicago native has been living and working for nearly a decade in Oakland, California, where she has developed a wide base of inspirations. With an architect’s eye for form and composition and the sensitivity of a young woman highly influenced by the urban environment in which she was raised, her luminous oil paintings are both raw and sophisticated. Williams blurs words, sounds and images to make layered works that tell visual stories, collaging old photographs, magazine clippings, rap lyrics and Biblical passages onto the canvas in a way that alludes to personal memory and a collective history. Drips, scribbles, photo transfers and sheer glazes are juxtaposed to illustrate the complexities of identity and place. For Back Home, Williams explores her Chicago roots and honors her expanded vision of home to include California, Africa, the future and beyond. Amanda will continue to push her artistic boundaries by including an experimental multimedia collaboration.
Amanda Williams was raised on the Southside of Chicago. After graduating from the University of Chicago High School, Williams attended Cornell University, obtaining a Bachelors Degree in Architecture with an emphasis on Fine Art. She is the recipient of Hennessy Cognac’s Emerging Artist of the Year Award (2004), the Robert J. Eidlitz Travel Fellowship and the the University of California at Berkeley Ford/Mellon Research Fellowship. Her solo exhibition credits include: the Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA; Soularch Gallery, San Francisco, CA; the Angel Orensanz Foundation, NYC; and the Wilmer Jennings Gallery, NYC. Amanda’s art has appeared in several group exhibitions including: the Studio Museum in Harlem’s critically acclaimed, harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor, and Afrofuturism, at the Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN. Trouble Man: Marvin Gaye, African American Museum and Library in Oakland, Oakland, CA; CCA Recent Works, Oliver Arts Center, Oakland, CA; Art for Life, Rush Arts Gallery, NYC; and Free the Spirit, Nicole Gallery, Chicago, IL. Amanda’s work is in the permanent collections of the Schieffelin & Somerset Corporation and Cornell University. She is a faculty member at the California College of the Arts. This is her first solo exhibition at the Steelelife Gallery.
Steelelife Gallery hours are Tuesday–Saturday, 11:00 am–5:30 pm and Sunday from noon to 5 pm. Visitors are highly recommended to schedule an appointment with owner Bryant Johnson. The gallery is located at 4655 S. King Drive, 2nd FL Chicago, Illinois 60616. Please call 773.538.4773 for more information.
Join the artist on Saturday, March 11, 2006 from 6-9pm for the opening reception of "Back Home". Amanda will also be available for an artist’s talk on Saturday, April 15 from 12pm-2pm. Both events will be located at the gallery, 4655 S. King Drive, 2nd floor.
Contact: Kenney , 773.960.7220
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